Looking Beyond Coupons and Co-Ops for Food Savings

by Gary Foreman

Coupons and co-ops can help cut food costs quite a bit, depending on where you live. But what if these tools aren’t readily available to you? We explore ways to find food savings beyond coupons and co-ops.

Gary,
I am frustrated! I always read about people who have many options for saving on groceries. We do not live in a town that offers double coupons or co-ops for food. There are only two grocery stores. The price of gas lately doesn’t make it efficient for us to go to Costco 180 miles away.

Please offer some insight for people who have similar situations on how to reduce food costs.
Kay

Kay has a point. Not everyone has the same tools available to them. So, let’s see if we can’t find some ways to reduce grocery bills for folks who don’t live in the big city.

Start By Minimizing Food Waste

We’ll begin with an obvious savings that many of us overlook in our busy lives. Don’t waste the food that you buy.

According to Fortune.com, the average American household wastes 1/3 of the food they acquire, or roughly $1,500 per year for a family of four.

Two tools will help you to avoid food waste. First, don’t buy perishables that aren’t in your menu plan. Second, have a plan for your leftovers. Don’t let them spoil in the refrigerator.

Make Good Use of Your Freezer

Many families have gotten in the habit of freezing meal-sized portions of their leftovers immediately after a meal. Each portion is marked and dated so it’s easy for family members to find what they want.

Some even go so far as to keep a running inventory posted on the freezer door listing what’s inside. That’s especially useful for busy families where not everyone gets to eat at the same time.

• How To Prevent Freezer Burn
• How To Frugally Freeze Fruits and Veggies
• Frugally Freezing Meats: Protect Your Savings From Freezer Burn

Avoid Buying Prepared and Individually Packaged Foods

This means everything from microwave dinners to prepackaged potato chips and individually wrapped cheese slices. There are exceptions, but typically, you pay for convenience. Quite a lot, in fact. Sure, it’s nice to have those little carrots already sliced. But compare prices to the unprocessed carrots and you’ll see just how much it’s costing you.

Food preparation doesn’t need to be a burden. Your kids can help. Even young ones can learn simple tasks. Not only will you be spending quality time together, but also you’ll be teaching them money-saving skills.

Food Shop Like a Professional

The third technique is to shop like a professional buyer. A pro always wants to know when and where they last bought an item and how much they paid. You can do the same thing by creating something called a price book.

This simple tool can cut your bills by 10% or more. Most families have between 10 and 20 recipes that they make regularly. And those recipes contain 40 or so different ingredients. So you end up buying the same things over and over. You’ll also find that a large portion of your grocery bill is spent on less than one-third of the items you buy.

A price book helps you keep track of those items. You can buy a price book (search online) or make your own. All you need is a loose-leaf or spiral notebook of any size. Each item has its own page. Keep track of information on those frequently bought, expensive items. List the date, price, package size and which store you were shopping at. That way, when you’re shopping, it’s easy to identify the real bargains.

Stock up when you find a particularly good sale of one of your regularly purchased items. After a while, you’ll have a well-stocked pantry and the only items that you “must buy” will be the perishables. The savings can be significant.

Know What You’re Buying

Next, learn more about what you buy. Don’t buy low-fat, low-carb, all-natural or any other specialty foods without reading the whole label first. It’s all too common for the expensive version to be the same as the regular product but at a higher price. The only thing low-cal is the label.

Eat healthy. Make use of in-season fruits and vegetables. Reduce the amount of meat in your diet. Not only will you lower your grocery bill, but you’ll probably also reduce your doctor bills.

Cut the Cleaning Supplies

Finally, don’t buy a lot of different cleaning supplies at the grocery store. You can make all the cleansers you need for your home from a few simple, inexpensive ingredients. You do need to watch which chemicals you put together, but there’s no need to buy expensive name-brand cleansers.

You can find all kinds of cleaning recipes on the online.

Kay is right. It is easier to save money on groceries when they double coupons, you have a choice of grocery stores and a warehouse club is just down the road. But, even without those tools, it is possible to keep your food bills to a minimum without sacrificing your diet.

• How a Grocery App Can Keep Your Food Budget in Check
• How To Manage Your Grocery Budget for Lower Food Costs
• Going Beyond Cheap Recipes To Reduce Grocery Bills
• Guidelines for Reducing the Grocery Budget
• 9 Ways To Plan for a Lower Grocery Bill

Reviewed October 2023

About the Author

Gary Foreman is the former owner and editor of The Dollar Stretcher. He's the author of How to Conquer Debt No Matter How Much You Have and has been featured in MSN Money, Yahoo Finance, Fox Business, The Nightly Business Report, US News Money, Credit.com and CreditCards.com.